I would just like to add, that the people who are interested in the Parhelia are not the ones you will find visiting nV News, HardOCP, Anandtech, etc...

The parhelia will find a home for users who are coders, web designers, graphic artists, desktop publishers. The ones who don't frequent gaming websites. That is probably why everyone is coming down on the Parhelia card so much, because the majority are frame rate *****s and that's what most of the visitors to such websites care about. Everyone can deny it all they want, but it's 3DMark2001 that and FPS in this game or that game.

It's really sad if you ask me.

Plus, I love at all the people who are bitching about price. In my mind the cards price is fine. Sure it could sell alot more if it drops to a $299.00 or a $250.00 price point, but folks wake up and smell the coffee.

Matrox has features no one else has so the price can be as high as they want it to be. You got Surround Gaming, Triple display, FAA... Features no other card has.

Don't you people recall a company that went by Number Nine? They where one of the biggest 2D graphic card companies and the prices of their line of video card was outrageous, but did you see people bitch so much? Nope... They paid for what they wanted. Simple as that. For the people who are bitching about price? Then the card is obviously not for you.

If their is a market for Porsche's, Lamborghini's, etc... Then their is a market for the Parhelia card. Just because I can't afford a Porsche doesn't mean I have to constantly bitch about the price of the car being way out of my price range.

All Matrox has to do is wake up and target the users who will be using this card for Surround Gaming. The majority of the buyers of this card aren't full out hardcore gamers and that means they are usually the SIMS and Real time gamers.

It would be cool to see, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, SIMS Online, etc... type of games support Surround Gaming.

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Congrats, its nice to see a review of this card with so much enthusiasm and objectivity. I orginally pre-ordered this card from Matrox but cancelled the order when I decided to that I wasnt prepared to shell out £330 for a vid card. I ended up with a 4200 instead. However, I still think the UK RRP price of this needs coming down to the sub £220 level.

Originally posted by 1eppan anyways...
Why on earth everyone is talking about BUYING THREE monitors?? Heck I have already two pretty okay 17 incher CRTs and 2nd hand 3rd one does not cost more than 100 Euros (that's a max.) Of Course I need a bigger table but I think my parents old Dinner table is okay for this.

except if you're like me, those monitors are attached to other computers, which means i would have to carry them around back and forth for when i wanted to use them.

add to the fact that desk space is a real issue with 3 CRTs; they just wouldn't fit. and of course my older monitor is pretty bad quality-wise. the only reasonable option for 3 monitors are LCDs, and i doubt that most people have spare LCDs lying around.

Originally posted by Solomon I would just like to add, that the people who are interested in the Parhelia are not the ones you will find visiting nV News, HardOCP, Anandtech, etc...The parhelia will find a home for users who are coders, web designers, graphic artists, desktop publishers.

That's a sweeping generalization if I ever saw one. I am/was interested in the Parhelia and am not in this audience. I am a gamer/hardware enthusiast who was originally excited that there might be some decent competition to ATI and NVIDIA and was sorely disppointed when the Parhelia hasn't been able to deliver the kind of performance I was anticipating considering its price premium and existing competitors.

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That is probably why everyone is coming down on the Parhelia card so much, because the majority are frame rate *****s and that's what most of the visitors to such websites care about. Everyone can deny it all they want, but it's 3DMark2001 that and FPS in this game or that game.

It's really sad if you ask me.

If ATI and NVIDIA were pumping out monster frame rates in games with shoddy image quality, then I might agree with you. But from what I've seen, the Radeon 9700 and Ti4600 do more than adequate jobs of handling 2D and 3D quality while delivering great performance in the 3D area.

3D gaming is going through a revolution now. It's not like it was in the 3dfx days where performance was the be all, end all. With cards like the 9700 and Ti4600, gamers need not compromise image quality for speed nearly as much as in the past. It's nice to be able to have our cake and eat it, too, and all for less than what the Parhelia costs.

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Matrox has features no one else has so the price can be as high as they want it to be. You got Surround Gaming, Triple display, FAA... Features no other card has.

Those first two features you mention are one in the same to me. Matrox has 10-bit giga color or whatever, but that's a feature only the most discriminating people will ever bother to notice. FAA? If you're referring to FSAA, the 9700 has the Parhelia's number there, with quality and peformance to meet and exceed Matrox.

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Don't you people recall a company that went by Number Nine? They where one of the biggest 2D graphic card companies and the prices of their line of video card was outrageous, but did you see people bitch so much? Nope... They paid for what they wanted. Simple as that. For the people who are bitching about price? Then the card is obviously not for you.

If their is a market for Porsche's, Lamborghini's, etc... Then their is a market for the Parhelia card. Just because I can't afford a Porsche doesn't mean I have to constantly bitch about the price of the car being way out of my price range.

By that logic then, Number 9 should still be in business.

Porsche and Lamborghini are still in business because their products are marketed correctly, with the emphasis on performance. The Parhelia will have its niche, but it's not with the hardcore gaming crowd.

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All Matrox has to do is wake up and target the users who will be using this card for Surround Gaming. The majority of the buyers of this card aren't full out hardcore gamers and that means they are usually the SIMS and Real time gamers.

It would be cool to see, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, SIMS Online, etc... type of games support Surround Gaming.

The types of people who play these games aren't hardcore gamers, I agree. At the same time, I know people who play these games and they are not the type of people who will go out and spend $350 for the Parhelia, plus $500+ on the monitor hardware just to be able to play the Sims on 3 monitors.

IMO Matrox should just abandon the gaming market all together. Concentrate on the professionals who would be able to see the benefits of 10-bit gigacolor in Photoshop and so forth.

For gamers, Matrox missed the boat. Their new features haven't been enough to offset the card's lackluster performance in comparison to its competition.

Originally posted by Solomon The parhelia will find a home for users who are coders, web designers, graphic artists, desktop publishers. The ones who don't frequent gaming websites. That is probably why everyone is coming down on the Parhelia card so much, because the majority are frame rate *****s and that's what most of the visitors to such websites care about. Everyone can deny it all they want, but it's 3DMark2001 that and FPS in this game or that game.

It's really sad if you ask me.

only problem being that it is a gaming card. probably the most innovative and enticing feature Parhelia offers is triple monitor support, also known as Surround Gaming. just accept the fact that Matrox was intending for Parhelia to be a gaming card, it just had the features without the teeth.

I am a gamer/hardware enthusiast who was originally excited that there might be some decent competition to ATI and NVIDIA and was sorely disppointed when the Parhelia hasn't been able to deliver the kind of performance I was anticipating considering its price premium and existing competitors.

I'm a gamer, but I sit in front of my monitor and do alot of web work which would improved if I did have three monitors. I'm still waiting on the perfect LCD monitor. Actually going to try the new Hitachi soon to see if the 16ms rate it's given is legit. But here again you bring up price. Why is this another price/performance issue? We all know that if you are majority gaming you don't buy a Parhelia. In my eyes, the Parhelia is a work related card with the option of playing games at a respectable rate. You're not going to get 300 fps and you know what, you don't need that.

I'm just wondering what happend to all the Voodoo 2 users out there? Did suddenly they all just get a new sense of fluidity? I mean seriously. What happend to the 50 to 60fps as being all you really need? Now it's 300fps or the card is just slow... I love that. I laugh everyday when I see people stuck on numbers.

I've concentrated my work around video cards for the last 9 years and noticed a trend. From the early days of the Mystique/V2 combo, the majority have been craving for the frame rate number. It's amazing to see people treat their brands of video cards like it's a religion or something. Hehe.

It's just comical that the Parhelia is looked at strictly the gaming side of things. As Scott has experienced. If your work revolved around working on code, desktop publishing, etc... you would see the benefits of a triple display setup. Your work ethics improve because of sort and that my friends is worth every penny of that $399.99 price tag that people complain about. For the folks who don't want to spend their money on such a card then that's fine, no problem. But it's strange how defensive people get saying, "Well if the card was cheaper I would get it", or "ATi and Nvidia have about equal or better 2D quality and their 3D quality is alot faster then Matrox". It's apparent that most of you won't get the bang for the buck on the Parhelia as you probably won't get the benefits of using the Parhelia like Scott and I use it for.

Easy choosing...

You majority game on your PC? Get a 9700 / Ti4600 / Ti4200

You make money on your PC working on it day in and day out? Would using a multiple display help your every day computing? You see your productivity increase with using a multiple display? Get the Parhelia card. Does it really matter how Matrox was trying to market there card? I certainly don't. As to StealthHawk's comment. I don't have to accept the fact. I've heard the routine from Matrox, Nvidia, ATi all the time. You either get sucked in the propaganda of PR material or you look at what the card can do for you personally and not as a whole and then you are able to choose which card fits your computing style.

Like I have said many times before, the performance issue has a lot to do with context.

If you're only talking about 10x7, then there will be a wider difference betweein a GF4 and Parhelia...though this still depends on a variety of factors.

If, however, you actually make use of those features at higher resolutions, then you have a totally different ballgame. So much so, in fact, that the Parhelia will overtake the GF4 in terms of higher performance.

This is what I have basically discovered...If you're talking about the standard benchmarks, there will be a larger differential @ lower resolutions...though it typically can be seen across many resolutions.

If, on the other hand, you're talking about regular old games, then the difference is either much smaller, or the Parhelia overtakes it entirely.

As soon as you add Antialiasing to the mix, then the Parhelia really does shine.

If, however, you actually make use of those features at higher resolutions, then you have a totally different ballgame. So much so, in fact, that the Parhelia will overtake the GF4 in terms of higher performance.

if this is really true, i'm still skeptical of the comparison. shouldn't we be comparing the R9700Pro to the Parhelia? they are in the same price range, afterall.

is the Parhelia still limited to 2x AF? it seems a little unfair to compare the "max settings" of each card when one is doing less work and then proclaim it the winner. maybe newer drivers have helped Matrox out a bit.

i guess i'll just wait for the review to go back up, but that's something to think about.

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As to StealthHawk's comment. I don't have to accept the fact. I've heard the routine from Matrox, Nvidia, ATi all the time. You either get sucked in the propaganda of PR material or you look at what the card can do for you personally and not as a whole and then you are able to choose which card fits your computing style.

well, i'm not saying it should be looked at only as a gaming card. of course it is up to the individual to make a call based on the evidence they have, and that will be that. however, based on the moniker, Matrox is obviously trying to get gamer's attentions.